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Hello, I am having some trouble identifying the motor I purchased for my car. I bought a 2002 330i motor from a salvage yard, and I don't think it's what they say it is. The motor fit just about fine, but it's slightly different. I was thinking maybe its just a slightly different year 330i but I can't find any information from the serial number online. I compared the oil pan to other ones from other BMW's and the one that is on my engine matches a 525i oil pan. Could somebody possibly please give me a hand in identifying what motor I have installed into my 330i?

look in the back side on your engine (toward the #6 cylinder) and you will see sticker/vin stating the engine type. other than that, it is really hard to tell the difference between the M52TU/M54 engine apart (when just comparing the engine w/o any accessories).

you can tell the 330 from the 325 by removing the intake manifold and looking at the shape of the ports. One is a D shape and the other is just oval. another method is remove the valve cover and look at the camshafts. look for the P/N on the camshaft. the P/N on the camshaft is how I verified that I actually bought a M54B30 ZHP engine and not some regular 330 or even a 325 engine.

again, it is very hard to tell the difference with just the bare/bone engine w/o any attachment/accessories. however, assuming you bought the engine with the accessories then you will know that the 330 has the following:

darn it. gosh...your safe bet is look at the intake manfold port then. however, don't mean to make you anymore paranoid but anyone can put a 330 intake manifold in their 323/325 though (just like what I did).

your safest bet is to remove the valve cover and look at those camshaft.

OP. If your 330 throttle body (3.0 inch) fits your intake manifold then you have a 330 intake manifold. no need to remove the intake manifold just to look at the ports.

The pictures in this thread, are they of a 330i motor? (I'm sorry, I'm not very mechanically inclined, and kind of new at this) If so, the intake manifold ports were also D-shaped on the new engine. I know that's not a 100% indicator of having a 330i motor, but it's a pretty good one, right?

The pictures in this thread, are they of a 330i motor? (I'm sorry, I'm not very mechanically inclined, and kind of new at this) If so, the intake manifold ports were also D-shaped on the new engine. I know that's not a 100% indicator of having a 330i motor, but it's a pretty good one, right?

The pictures in the url I provided are indeed from a 330. However, the pictures of the intake manifold port is found on another thread. I haven't look it up yet but I think the title is something like m54b30 intake manifold swap